Europe: death by censorship

I have been working as a lawyer defending free speech for over a decade.

In 2012, I wrote Censored, a short book on hate-speech laws in Europe, and the imminent threat they pose to freedom of speech. Four years later, a second edition was needed. There were more laws, more cases to report, and a radically changing legal landscape. And in the four years since then, Europe’s march towards censorship has continued unabated. Not so much a ‘slippery slope’ – more a running jump.

Vaguely worded and arbitrarily enforced ‘hate speech’ codes have been adopted by Big Tech without discussion or any real public consultation. National governments have started threatening online social-media platforms with crippling fines if they don’t censor speech. And many leading universities are now proud to tout their censorship credentials – banning speakers and silencing their students. Without doubt, the increasingly shrill, you-can’t-say-that culture, with its love for No Platforming, cancelling, boycotting and severely punishing dissenters, has arrived in force.

Europe’s march towards state-enforced, mass-scale censorship is all too familiar to us now. And yet, there are still moments when we should be shocked afresh by how far we’ve come in such a short period of time. The outrageous case of Päivi Räsänen is such a moment.

Here are the facts. Räsänen is a trained medical doctor and highly experienced member of the Finnish parliament, having served there for the past 25 years, including as a senior government minister. She is also a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, and serves on her local parish council.

In the summer of 2019, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland announced it would become an official partner of Pride 2019. As an active member of her church, Räsänen shared a post on social media directed at her church’s leadership. It showed an image of a Bible passage, and questioned the church’s partnership with Pride in light of official church teaching on marriage and sexuality.

No threats of violence. No slurs. No obscenity. Not even a mention of anyone in particular. An innocuous tweet aimed at her church’s leadership.

And yet this tweet triggered a police investigation. Suspected of ‘ethnic agitation’ under Finland’s typically broad hate-speech law, she was questioned for four hours by the police and the case against her is ongoing.

Räsänen has also faced a second police interrogation this week, this time for a short booklet she was asked to write for a church foundation over 15 years ago that explains the church’s teaching on marriage and sexuality. This pamphlet was written seven years before the law that she is being charged under was even passed.

And even more shocking, the police already investigated the pamphlet once and were satisfied no crime had been committed. Not satisfied with this decision, Finland’s prosecutor-general demanded that the case against Räsänen be reopened. Perhaps to provide context for her decision, the prosecutor-general explained in one of Finland’s largest newspapers that historical books are free to be read and even quoted, but believing in their content could lead to criminal investigation. Three books were named in the interview to illustrate the point: the Koran, the Bible and Mein Kampf.

To repeat, a quietly spoken 60-year-old grandmother of six, who has been a member of the Finnish parliament since 1995, is facing two criminal investigations – one for a tweet and one for a church booklet. If found guilty, she could face up to two years in prison. And this is barely being reported.

This persecution of Räsänen is utterly outrageous. It doesn’t matter whether you share her beliefs or not. She didn’t incite anyone to violence or even come close. Her deeply held beliefs, and how she chose to express them, should not be considered worthy of police time in a free society.

But that of course raises the question – can our societies currently be considered free?

Things are hardly better in the UK. We have MPs calling on the police to investigate those who disagree with them. And we have a police force dedicated to investigating and recording non-crimes. Indeed, a remarkable 120,000 so-called ‘hate incidents’ have been recorded in five years, defined by police guidance as ‘any non-crime incident which is perceived, by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice’.

And we also have our own outrageous Twitter cases. As I was in Helsinki meeting with Räsänen, the judgment in the case of Harry Miller was handed down by the High Court. Miller, a former police officer, was investigated by the police in 2019 for a series of tweets about proposed changes to the Gender Recognition Act 2004. The police eventually confirmed he had not committed a crime but the incident would be registered as a ‘hate incident’.

In finding that the police’s actions violated his right to freedom of expression, the judge concluded his ruling with the words of John Stuart Mill: ‘If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind.’

A nice sentiment. But in Finland, in the UK, and across Europe, we are a long way from seeing this lived out in practice. After all, the judge in the Miller case still upheld the police’s nonsensical guidance on hate incidents. And Räsänen is still being hounded by the state over a church booklet written over 15 years ago.

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Tony Benn

9th March 2020 at 6:10 pm

“Why are we not more shocked?”

Some of us said at the time the Hate Speech legislation was introduced that this was coming, we were told that was ridiculous and the law would be applied carefully and sensibly. I knew that was never going to happen, new laws are now weapons to suppress the working class and stop them getting uppity. Now Sadiq Khan wants women to be included as a protected class, that means saying “You silly woman” or “Women aren’t very good at football” or even “That transexual woman looks ridiculous” is a hate crime. Yes that’s right, a man in a dress is going to claim he is a woman, complain and get someone prosecuted for a hate crime.

Marvin Jones

9th March 2020 at 3:32 pm

“THEY” claim that Britain is the mother of all democracies, the fairest of all judiciaries and the best cops on the planet. BUT! one can be arrested and charged with committing a “NON CRIME”. Asinine or what? “THEY”, can’t distinguish if a person with a penis and testicles is a man or woman. What has the human race mutated into?

steve moxon

3rd March 2020 at 11:11 pm

S**ked! needs to stop its extreme and idiotic censorship of erudite comment on its own website before taking a stand on this issue

Carlo Guli

3rd March 2020 at 7:41 pm

Wait a minute! Are we going to have EAWs from the Finnish government for every priest, monk and nun in the EU27? My fellow Christians, I’m afraid it’s back to the catacombs.

Norman Baker

3rd March 2020 at 2:25 pm

Fu*k spiked’s comment section. My posts have to wait for moderation then get shadow censored (invisible to anyone not logged in and of unknown visibility to anyone but me). Yet I am still bombarded with endless drivel from ZP and people telling me how many $$$ a month I could be making.

Fu*k it I am out.

juliusB

3rd March 2020 at 10:19 pm

I agree with both of your complaints.

steve moxon

3rd March 2020 at 11:14 pm

Absolutely. S**ked! is becoming a joke.
Hoist by its own petard on the anti-censorship line it pushes.
The Left even in its better part — and how small is that? — reverting to form.

Chester Minnit

3rd March 2020 at 11:24 am

Ironic really that the pursuit of tolerance breeds such intolerance.

Bill East

3rd March 2020 at 11:51 am

Indeed—it is our tolerance that is used against us by intolerant groups such as Islamists, yet our stupid politicians and rozzers persist with their ridiculous witch hunts.

Mark Gobell

3rd March 2020 at 11:21 am

Why are we not more shocked?

Because such behaviour has become normal.

It has been drip fed for decades.

Now the taps are loosened …

First they came for the little old German lady, Ursula Haverbeck … and nobody spoke out …

Now they come for the Finnish Christian lady, Päivi Räsänen … and you ask why nobody speaks out …

MG

juliusB

3rd March 2020 at 10:57 pm

I looked up Ursula Haverbeck as I hadn’t heard of her. I don’t think she is a good example or comparable to the Finnish dr. The German lady is a Holocaust denier.

Ven Oods

3rd March 2020 at 10:42 am

“And this is barely being reported.”
That’s the really outrageous aspect of the Räsänen debacle. But is it journalists, editors or media owners who are at fault?

Ed Turnbull

3rd March 2020 at 9:31 am

So, in Finland you can read historic documents but believing in their content can result in prosecution, and the Bible, the Koran and Mein Kampf were mentioned by way of example. Hmm? I’ll wager the Finnish authorities won’t be quite so quick to persecute someone who believes in the content of the Koran – they show reluctance to prosecute those who *act* upon the prescriptions contained thererin, never mind merely *believe* in them.

And do the Finnish authorities not realise that in criminalising belief they’ve become yet another Western government that’s adopted “1984” as a policy manual?

NEIL DATSON

‘. . . the prosecutor-general explained in one of Finland’s largest newspapers that historical books are free to be read and even quoted, but believing in their content could lead to criminal investigation. Three books were named in the interview to illustrate the point: the Koran, the Bible and Mein Kampf.’

If that is true any Finnish Christian and any Finnish Moslem is surely in perpetual danger of being the subject of a criminal investigation. What about non-Finns who are only visiting the country? Has anybody warned Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill to stay away? I suppose Mormon missionaries must have a tough time there, poor kids.

Geoff Cox

3rd March 2020 at 9:10 am

Just what is the agenda here? Has some bizarre mind virus affected the Police, media, judiciary (except in the Harry Miller case), politicians or is it more sinister than that? The ban on discussing mass immigration and Islam more specifically is everywhere in the West. White’s are being replaced and we must say we welcome it. Incredible and depressing. Time to fight back with a big political movement which has the clear objective to save the white race and our culture.

juliusB

3rd March 2020 at 11:00 pm

We need another Peasants Revolt but with a more successful outcome.

Philip Humphrey

3rd March 2020 at 7:39 am

I think the answer has to be legal and unambiguous to defend the right to free speech, freedom of religion and freedom of lifestyle against the censorship of the “woke” or anyone else. In the UK we need a proper British bill of rights to replace the useless Human Rights Act. That would burn unambiguously enshrine free speech in law and strictly define any to limits to free speech (such as direct incitement to violence). It would have to be carefully worded so that activist judges cannot abuse any limits to free speech. I think that would also set a clear change in direction now we have left the EU.

Dominic Straiton

3rd March 2020 at 8:40 am

you forgot freedom of association and expression.

Jim Lawrie

3rd March 2020 at 11:12 am

No comment is made by this publication on the identity of victims of these witch hunts if they are white Europeans. Which they invariably are.

Ven Oods

3rd March 2020 at 10:45 am

“The police eventually confirmed [Miller] had not committed a crime but the incident would be registered as a ‘hate incident’.”
I’d argue that the hate incident was perpetrated by the police on the person |(and rights) of Miller.

Tony Benn

9th March 2020 at 6:12 pm

We got one 300 years ago.

What we really need is the govt to scrap hate crime legislation. The only way it will happen is if one of their own is affected.

alan smithee

3rd March 2020 at 5:11 am

I didn’t expect Australia to go woke!

Brandy Cluster

3rd March 2020 at 4:02 am

My GP moved to Australia from Poland 20 years ago and said Australia is resembling communist Poland more and more by the day – and it’s precisely for the reasons spelled out here, inter alia.

Geoff Cox

3rd March 2020 at 9:12 am

My sister moved from England to Aus about 20 year ago too. She is a teacher and she believes pc is worse in Aus than in the UK. But that’s teaching for you – “education” gone mad.